NotJayTabb

Rising: John Tenta - wasn't on my ballot in 2016, but he's got a very good shot this time. Rewatching the Summerslam 90 match made me realise just how great it is, it's a proper big time main event even with it's non-definite finish. He's not going to be my highest superheavyweight (Vader, Henry and Blackwell are all currently above him), but he's a really great details wrestler, and that's something I always appreciate. He knows how to sell to maximise both his opponent's offence but also maintain his aura, where he's established that he's not easy to knock down, but he sells babyface offence like it MIGHT do. Steve Grey - had him too low last time (95), he's a great babyface fire worker, which is one of my favourite kinds of wrestler, and giving him a deeper dive is already proving I needed to watch more. WoS guys in general are probably trending upwards, and I want to have a deeper dive into Pat Roach, who I had at 86 last time, because I want to bang the gong for him in 2026 Falling: Ric Flair - my #11 last time, and I felt that was because I couldn't really have him any lower, and that was me giving into his reputation. Already I look at guys I had below him (Funk, Bock, Steamboat, Misawa) who I think are better, and I can see him dropping into the 20s this time around Kevin von Erich - look, I love Kevin. He's my favourite von Erich and I think he's awesome. Pure fight, all action, just a lot of fun to watch. But I had him at #24 last time, which is insane in hindsight. That's 4 places higher than Tito, and as a pure fire babyface I've got to admit Tito is better. I think I let my heart overrule my head.

My foolish completist nature means I've sat through a lot of chaff, but one of the useful things about watching old cards on the network is having the length of each segment available to help with decisions like this. An 18 minute segment titled "Sal Bellomo vs Tony Garea" is a helpful red flag to skip.

The interview with Reigns does seem to be partly in character, but I also don't think it's that surprising that he's not a big CM Punk fan. That "keep Roman strong" shit followed him round for years, even though Reigns ending up as comfortably the best all-round talent in the Shield proved that it was the right thing to do, so taking a few pot shots back doesn't seem unfair

Bam Bam doesn't make the cut for me. When I was rewatching 94 WWF, it was surprising to me just how often Bammer was pretty disappointing. Even his squashes were pedestrian, which is damning when you consider the likes of Kwang and Adam Bomb were having fun jobber matches on Raw at the time. Admittedly I've not seen much of his ECW run, not my favourite promotion to watch, so I can still be turned. What would be the 3 best ECW Bigelow matches to watch as a starting point?

The more Fritz I see, the more I think he's my favourite wrestler from the family. Just a big nasty bastard, his Texas Death match with Baba is so good

I'll admit to being an absolute mark for the claw. I love it being used by heel Fritz in Japan as a device to mean he's always a threat (like when he kicks out of a Baba pinfall and is able to immediately apply a claw to Baba's prone stomach), and I love his sons using it as a babyface move where they build a bunch of drama out of trying to apply it and the heel trying to fend it off. It's greatness is in it's simplicity.

Thanks, that sounds like something I'd be very interested in. I should say for context that I'm having to play catch up with a lot of wrestling, in effect I took a year off from actively watching following Speaking Out. I've been working through Dynamites since signing up for AEW Plus 2 months ago, and Dustin is one of the guys I still get excited for.

I think whether or not he feels like one of the best guys in AEW doesn't just depend on Dustin but the rest of the roster as well. For example, I know from your posts that there are several workers there you're much higher on than I am, who I don't enjoy watching as much as DR, plus Dustin has the benefit of showing up less often, so it's a bigger treat when he does.

Even Black Reign had glimmers of classic Dustin. His first PPV match in the gimmick, where he just beats the shit out of Chris Harris before getting DQd, is surprisingly entertaining, even if it's barely a match. His offence still looks pretty good, even if his motivation is clearly lacking. I'm in a position where I'm playing catch up with AEW, but every time Dustin shows up, he feels like one of the best guys there. The Rampage match against Black was really good, and Dustin looked great. For "man in his 50s vs ex WWE guy", it smoked Suzuki/Ambrose from the same show.

Yeah, Shelley feels like a great choice of touring champion, he's someone who I'm interested in seeing against almost all of the guys who regularly wrestle in the IWTV promotions. He feels like he's similar to the early champions like Gresham or Tracy Williams, rather than less rounded wrestlers like Cassidy and Warhorse. Giving Warhorse 500+ days with the title was too long.

Neither guy has a chance of making my list. But I voted Shawn because the Rockers were great.

I thought no-mask heel Rey Jr was an irritating little prick, which is incredible for someone who's such a purely likeable babyface. I see his ability to piss me off as a definite positive for him

He dropped a bigger easter egg by saying Daniel and David were on their way, who are real life neighbours/friends The Revival. That's a deep inside cut.

Everyone in the world is second best to Brandon Cutler?

Back at the 2020 Royal Rumble, when Daniel Bryan did the near impossible by having a good strap match with a bad wrestler who no-sells everything, I did sit and wonder who else would have had a good match in that situation. My list was pretty short: Hogan (because he'd have sold the beatdown well, then hulked up and squashed the Fiend) and Bret. I thought back to Bret's matches against the likes of Yoko, Taker and Andre, where he was a smaller wrestler facing guys who would be able to withstand more of his offence, and how he still wrestled logical good matches against them. Bret had a good match in 1992 against Kamala, who was a limited big man, by selling well and making logical comebacks (as I recall, he stamped on Kamala's barefeet, which more wrestlers should have done). I think he'd have dragged something out of the Fiend

Gage is interesting, because he's had a long career, and always been at worst watchable, but I'd not consider him for something like this. I don't think he's ever been top 5 in the world at any point, heck I never thought he was top 5 in just CZW when I was watching in the early 2000s. Nowadays, I agree that he's managed to build himself an aura, and I'm glad he's seemingly turned his life around, but he's probably at his peak right now and I'd not put him top 50 in the world. Good to see him nominated, not making my list.

Its worthy remembering that AEW isn't Tony Khan's only role. He's still director of football at Fulham and I'm sure he has a role at his American football team too. His current workload would be huge if it was just AEW, and while I'm more than happy for him to neglect his Fulham duties (especially if they lose at the weekend ), it feels like he's taking on a lot

She's had a couple of dark matches on the main roster with Aaliyah, Dakota and Catanzaro, so she might be main roster bound

Tony Khan has tweeted that tonight will be a celebration of Brodie Lee, and I've got faith they'll do a really good job of it. Matt Sydal teaming with Dante Martin is interesting, could be a good team. I know Darius Martin is injured, I assume the same is true of Mike Sydal? Be interesting to see how Jungle Boy copes with the unusual situation of being the more physically imposing guy in his match.

Thought the Bearcat Lee squash was really fun. He wrestled like a proper big guy, felt like a serious contender even though he was only beating a comedy jobber.

Think it's interesting he's been nominated, but Dash Wilder hasn't. The Revival feels like one of those teams who I always think of as a unit rather than two wrestlers, so it's hard for me to pick one of them over the other in terms of a list like this. I kinda want to check out Dash's run on Main Event when Dawson was injured, see how he coped in a singles setting, but I'm not ruling out either guy

I've not watched huge amounts of AEW in the past, so when I watched the Danielson match, where Roberts sounded like a foghorn trying to spit out the words "American Dragon" I immediately remembered how awful he is. Surely they could book Dave Penzer for the same price.

Brandi giving Black the double finger was hilariously bad. I howled with laughter at that

I think things like the Kingston love come around to timing. I signed up for the CHIKARA streaming deal in 2016, and I reckon if I'd signed up one year earlier that I'd have found room for Kingston, Quack and Cesaro on my GWE16 ballot. I think stuff like IWTV has helped with availability of footage too. I always liked Kingston, but he was someone I'd see wrestle maybe once or twice a year, because I was rarely dropping £10-15 on one off indy shows. When you've suddenly got access to hours of indy footage for a bargain price, and can see someone like Eddie having good matches regularly for multiple promotions, it enhances their case.

Bron Breakker vs Ridge Holland feels like a Takeover worthy singles match, assuming Takeovers still exist